text:
Then in 1994 the computer entered my life.
The contradiction between limitation on the one hand, unlimited freedom and no physical borders on the other hand, created new impulses and insights to explore the possibilities of the medium. My fascination for this platform was born.
I have travelled a long way obtaining the necessary technical skills,studying and experiecing the do's and the don;ts, preparing and presenting concepts of visual artists for the web. It has now become the art form for myself to express and to tell my story.
The images, the words, the colours, the sounds, the motions, they're all ready there. It is like a palet with paint, a keyboard characters,covered with jpg., gif, wave, MP3,mov., doc. and other files. They're at my disposition and I will put them in a new, different context. They form the remains of my travels trough my mind, the virtual world, the real world and life.
Marjan van Mourik (1958) studied art-history and multimedia.
Sites and Para-Sites: Networking Art, Monday March 20, ICA
Sites and Para-sites: Networking Art
The ICA, Brandon Room
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
Monday, March 20
7:30 pm
£3/£2 ICA members
Tickets: ICA box office 020 7930 3647
The London Consortium, the ICA and NODE.London present a conversation on how networks make artworks.
Why might (or might not) media artists and organisations choose to utilise networks to generate and distribute artworks? What does the prevalence of networks in media arts reflect about the increasingly networked character of contemporary culture and society? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the network model in comparison to other organisational structures? A panel of professionals with differing relationships to media arts and its networks will examine these questions and invite discussion from the audience.
Panel includes Ruth Catlow, artist, co-founder and co-director of Furtherfield.org and HTTP [House of Technologically Termed Practice] and a Voluntary Organiser for Node.London ; Kelli Dipple, integrated media and performance artist and Webcasting Curator at Tate; Shu Lea Cheang, digital artist working in the field of net-based installation, social interface and film production; Tom Corby, artist, writer, curator, academic at the University of Westminster, and editor "Network Art: Practices and Positions," recently published by Routledge; Helen Sloan, director of SCAN, the new media art agency in the South of England; and moderator, Professor Steven Connor, Academic Director of the London Consortium.
Deck @ Dana
Google for "Andy Deck" and you will get hundreds (probably thousands) of websites, which rather ironically, define him in the same way: "Andy Deck makes public art for the Internet that resists generic categorization". Other keywords you are likely to find commonly associated with the artist Andy Deck are net art, software art, screen-based interfaces, anti-corporatism, and "anti-militarism".
Visual Complexity
Visual Complexity is a listing of nearly 300 different information mapping projects. Compiled by Manuel Lima, a Portuguese information designer who recently finished his MFA at Parson's School of Design in New York, each entry includes a project overview and a link for more detail. Lima started VC as a method of cataloging research for his thesis, Blogviz�
Next Level:Art,Games and Reality until 18.06.06, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL)
Turning Games into a New Kind of Art�: that was the headline in The New York Times on January 21, of an article about a games exhibition �" and provides all the more proof that to an ever increasing degree digital games are part of popular culture. They not only reflect elements of daily life, but also influence it. In addition, digital games unite multiple disciplines such as film, photography, theatre and architecture. The medium appears to have begun an unstoppable advance, and forces �" or tempts �" us to a redefinition of our everyday environment. In its exhibition �Next Level�, the Stedelijk Museum shows work by artists and designers who make the vocabulary of games their own, and provide us with their personal reflection on it.
Potentially Someth;ng
Potentially Someth;ng will exhibit in London works by student artists who explore different fields inside the interactive / digital media.
The show includes:
The Doodle TV application doodles over live images on TV recognising faces and drawing glasses and mustaches over them, or drawing decoration around the image. It works exceptionally well with
news programs as you can see in the image.
By Kester Sheridan, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
For Luc Ferarri is an installation where the audience becomes the conductor of one of Luc Ferrari`s rare symphonic pieces. It questions the elite nature of classical music, its accessibility, its copyright and the role of of the conductor. The piece discovers a hidden visual side of classical performance and the intimacy of individual members of the orchestra caught in digital close-ups.
Luc Ferrari was present during this concert, recorded illegally three months before his death in August 2005. This may also be the last filmed work which has Ferrari invisible yet there, in the audience.
By Wojciech Kosma, Middlesex University.
Aikon (Artistic~Automated IKONograph) sketches faces automatically, starting from a picture, typically a photographic snapshot of a scene with humans.
Once a digital image is considered, the system automatically finds where some of the faces (or face-like patterns) are and isolate these. Each face image pattern is then used to produce a stylised portrait. The style which the system aims at using is derived from the one Patrick Tresset has developed over the years in his artistic practice. The goal is for the final system to mimic the process developed by the artist and algorithmically interpreting its subjects into naturalistic, yet electronically-derived, forms. Aikon will be producing a series of sketches throughout the exhibition.
By Patrick Tresset, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Potentially Someth;ng will start the ...


text: Business, Economics and Jobs Spain considers Vegas-like project to jumpstart flagging economy The World September 18, 2012 Billionaire American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has a plan to jumpstart Spain's slow economy: Vegas. No, he's not taking the national fortune to the craps table -- he wants to build a Vegas-style resort in Madrid. He says it will draw 10 million people per year.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Jardins de Bagatelle
Eau de Parfum
A romantic floral paradise
Complete refillable spray 100 ML
Indisponible - CA$ 165.00
Jardins de Bagatelle is for women who always perfume themselves for the pleasure of seduction as well as for their own pleasure and enjoyment.
These gardens are redolent with a multitude of white flowers, varieties of rose, hyacinths, daffodils and narcissus of exceptional luminosity, to the great delight of anyone who loves nature.
Created especially for Guerlain loyalists, this modern sculpture doubles as a refillable spray case that reveals a glimpse of your perfume's mystery and recalls the fine engraving of precious jewellery.
Joyous, luminous, captivating.
Jardins de Bagatelle is an airy and luminous essence, a sparkling fragrance. The heart is a real bouquet of white flowers (neroli, jasmine and gardenia) celebrating joie de vivre over a base of poisonous tuberose underscored with woody notes.
Jardins de Bagatelle blossoms over a tuberose base. This raw material also has aphrodisiac powers.
In the time of Louis XVI, its scent filled the air in the King's court to identify any unwed pregnant women: these women would faint under the effect of this poisonous flower!


text:
WASHINGTON -- Alabama gave a former Confederate officer the boot from the Capitol Wednesday to make room for Helen Keller.
Alabama unveiled a bronze of Keller depicting her at age 7 -- her moment of epiphany when she solved "the mystery of language" without sight or hearing.
The statue is the first honoring a disabled person in the U.S. Capitol and is the only one of a child in the Capitol collection.
Each state has two statues in the Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, which was permanent until 2000, when Congress allowed for changes.
The Keller statue replaces one of Jabez Curry, a former Confederate officer, educator, ambassador and preacher who was once well known for advocating for free public education. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a former congressman, came up with the idea to replace Curry when he found that most Alabama visitors didn't know who Curry was.
The statue depicts Keller at her home in Tuscumbia, Ala., as her teacher Anne Sullivan spelled out the word "water" in her hand while pumping water over her other hand.
Keller said the moment "awakened (her) soul" to the potential for her life. She later became an internationally celebrated advocate for those with disabilities. She died in 1968.
In a ceremony unveiling the statue in the Capitol Rotunda, Riley said the monument will remind people "that courage and strength can exist in the most unlikely places."
The Keller statue was funded with private donations raised by the state and will be placed in the new Capitol Visitor Center. The project cost about $325,000.
The statue of Curry, who died in 1903, will be moved to Samford University in Birmingham.


text:
Steven Liu's (b. 1989) tireless physical energy is expressed in his line - it, too, cannot be contained. It moves and jumps, doubles back, extends out, and then returns in long jittering loops, stopping occasionally to take note of a particular aspect before continuing on its vigorous way.
Liu's attention to detail and its willful disruption elevate the humble marker (his preferred medium) to heights normally reserved for the finest materials. In his hands, a few markers are as expressive as a palette full of oil paints.
Since joining the Creativity Explored Studio in 2011, Liu has been unstoppable and is a fast learner, willing to try new things, and experiment with new surfaces and varying sizes of work. He enjoys working in series, studying different subjects like dancers, bikers, and Hindu motifs.
on paper
Half of the proceeds from each art sale go directly to the studio artist.
Price includes domestic shipping.


text:
This post introduces a series about the algorithm used by Oracle (in 188.8.131.52) to fast refresh a materialized view (MV) containing only an aggregate:
create materialized view test_mv build immediate refresh fast on demand with rowid as select gby as mv_gby, count(*) as mv_cnt_star, AGG (dat) as mv_AGG_dat, count(dat) as mv_cnt_dat from test_master where whe = 0 group by gby ;
Where AGG is either SUM or MAX, the most important aggregates.
In the next posts, I will illustrate the algorithms used to propagate conventional (not direct-load) inserts, updates and deletes on the master table; I will illustrate also the specialized versions of the algorithms used when only one type of DML has been performed (if they exist).
In this post, we sets the stage, make some general observations, and illustrate the very first steps of the algorithm that are common to all scenarios. Everything is supported by the usual test case.
Materialized view logs configuration
I have configured the materialized view log on the master table to "log everything", to give the most complete information possible to the MV refresh engine:
create materialized view log on test_master with rowid ( whe, gby, dat ), sequence including new values;
With this configuration, each modification to the master table logs the rowid of the affected rows (in column m_row$$), and it is labeled with an increasing value (in sequence$$) that enables the MV refresh engine to reconstruct the order in which the modifications happened. In detail, let's see what's inside the logs after we modify a single row (from mvlog_examples.sql):
After an INSERT:
SEQUENCE$$ M_ROW$$ DMLTYPE$$ OLD_NEW$$ WHE GBY DAT ---------- -------------------- --------- --------- ------ ------ ------ 10084 AAAWK0AAEAAAxTHAD6 I N 10 10 10
This logs the new values (old_new$$='N') of an Insert (dmltype$$='I').
After a DELETE:
SEQUENCE$$ M_ROW$$ DMLTYPE$$ OLD_NEW$$ WHE GBY DAT ---------- -------------------- --------- --------- ------ ------ ------ 10085 AAAWK0AAEAAAxTFAAA D O 0 0 1
This logs the old values (old_new$$='O') of a Delete (dmltype$$='D').
After an UPDATE:
SEQUENCE$$ M_ROW$$ DMLTYPE$$ OLD_NEW$$ WHE GBY DAT ---------- -------------------- --------- --------- ------ ------ ------ 10086 AAAWK0AAEAAAxTHAD6 U U 10 10 10 10087 AAAWK0AAEAAAxTHAD6 U N 10 10 99
This logs both the old values (old_new$$='U') and the the new values (old_new$$='N') of an Update (dmltype$$='U'). So we see that the update changed DAT from 10 to 99, without changing the other columns.
Note that the update log format is the same as a delete (at sequence 10086) immediately followed by an insert (at sequence 10087) at the same location on disk (AAAWK0AAEAAAxTHAD6), the only differences being dmltype$$='U' and old_new$$ set to 'U' instead of 'O' for the old values.
But if you ignore these differences, you can consider the log a sequence of deletes/inserts, or if you prefer, a stream of old/new values. And this is exactly what the refresh engine does - it does not care whether an old value is present because it logs a delete or the "erase side" of an update, and ditto for new values. It "sees" the log as a stream of old/new values, as we will demonstrate.
Log snapshots
When the MV fast refresh is started, the first step is to "mark" the logged modifications to be propagated to the MV by setting snaptime$$ equal to the current time - check the description contained in this post for details (note also another possible variant with "commit-scn mv logs"). MV log purging (at the end of the refresh) is the same as well.
TMPDLT (deleting the redundant log values)
The stream of old/new values marked in the log might contain pairs of redundant values, each pair being composed of a new value (insert) immediately followed by an old value (delete) on the same row; every such pair can be ignored without affecting the refresh result. Filtering out these pairs is the job of this SQL fragment (nicknamed "TMPDLT"), heavily edited for readability:
with tmpdlt$_test_master as ( select /*+ result_cache(lifetime=session) */ rid$, gby, dat, whe, decode(old_new$$, 'N', 'I', 'D') dml$$, old_new$$, snaptime$$, dmltype$$ from (select log.*, min( sequence$$ ) over (partition by rid$) min_sequence$$, max( sequence$$ ) over (partition by rid$) max_sequence$$ from (select chartorowid(m_row$$) rid$, gby, dat, whe, dmltype$$, sequence$$, old_new$$, snaptime$$ from mlog$_test_master where snaptime$$ > :b_st0 ) as of snapshot(:b_scn) log ) where ( (old_new$$ in ('O', 'U') ) and (sequence$$ = min_sequence$$) ) or ( (old_new$$ = 'N' ) and (sequence$$ = max_sequence$$) ) )
The "log" in-line view is the usual one selecting the marked log rows; the outer query blocks, for each rowid, keeps only the first logged value but only if it is old, and the last logged one, but only if it is new.
So for example (check tmpdlt_pair_removal_examples.sql), TMPDLT filters out the rows marked with (*) from this triple update of the same row:
and it removes completely this pair (obtained by inserting a row and then deleting it):
As we will see, the result of TMPDLT is (almost always) the actual input to the refreshing algorithm, instead of the "raw" log rows. Note that this prefiltering is relatively expensive, and while it might be somehow beneficial to remove some redundant values, it is useful especially when the log contains a mix of new and old values and TMPDLT is able to turn it into a stream of new-only(insert-only) or old-only(delete-only) one. When it happens, the more specialized versions of the algorithm can be used, thus saving resources - even if the savings could not repay the cost of TMPDLT, in general.
Even better, this prefiltering shows its greatest advantage when you have to refresh a so-called "insert-only MV", that is, a MV that refuses to fast-refresh if updates or deletes where performed, but it fast-refreshes happily when only inserts were performed: you might be able to fast refresh and avoid a complete refresh if TMPDLT is able to filter out all the old values. This happens for example if you insert some rows first, and then modify (or delete) only the newly inserted rows before refreshing - as demonstrated by tmpdlt_enables_fast_refresh_of_insert_only_mv.sql using the classic insert-only MV, a MV containing MAX and a where clause.
TMPDLT caching
The first operation performed by the refresh engine is to classify the log content as new-only(insert-only), old-only(delete-only) or mixed, both to decide which refresh algorithm to use (insert-only, delete-only, general) and to raise, possibly, "ORA-32314 REFRESH FAST unsupported after deletes/updates" for insert-only MVs.
To classify the log, it issues a SQL statement on TMPDLT, that lists for every possible DML (Insert,Update,Delete) the max value of snaptime$$ contained in the log. In passing, this might enable some optimizations such as multi-step refreshes, but I have not investigated this.
Immediately after this, the chosen refreshing algorithm version might reference TMPDLT again - this time (possibly) saving resources since TMPDLT is result-cached, thanks to the hint "result_cache(lifetime=session)".
The caching is a potentially relevant optimization since analytic functions can use a lot or resources for big (long and/or wide) MV logs. It means also that one must check also the result cache size (and utilization) when tuning for performance - and check that the analytic functions in the first place, of course, have enough resources to operate efficiently.
Side note: the undocumented modifier "lifetime=session" simply means that the result is flushed (at least) when the session ends (check result_cache_session_lifetime.sql), which is a nice optimization since TMPDLT is flashed back in time and hence is NOT flushed when the log is modified. It is anayway explicitly flushed as soon as the refresh ends, hence this is only a safe net just in case the refresh fails for some reason (e.g. disk full).
TMPDLT disabling
What if you don't benefit from TMPDLT since your log does not contain (enough) redundant values, and you don't want to pay the cost of its processing and/or caching ?
You can disable it by removing the sequence from the MV log, that actually, as far as I know, seems to be used only by this prefilter. If this is done, all the refreshing statements read directly from the log; script tmpdlt_disabling_all.sql proves this (you will better appreciate how it works and its output after the next two posts that illustrate the actual refreshing algorithms of SUM and MAX, but you can already see that TMPDLT disappears from the refreshing statements).
The same scripts investigates also disabling it by setting the undocumented parameter "_mav_refresh_opt"=32, but as always, ask Oracle Support first (also because there's no official note explaining how it works on MOS, and I haven't used it in production yet - since I actually discovered it about one week ago while preparing this post).
In the next post, we will examine the SUM scenario.
Full name
Alberto Dell'Era
My company
My blog


text:
You are a (please check only one):
A. Neurologist
B. Cardiologist
C. Other medical practitioner
D. Male
E. Female
A Blog detailing the insanity of my medical practice and the stupidity of everyday life.
Which is why I will have a job when I'm done with my PhD.....
which one did you check?
Was this study just for medical-profession people? If anyone can fill it out, it's possible M/F was for those not in the medical field. At least that's how I'm reasoning it out.
It was only for doctors.
I marked (A), and hoped the last 2 choices were a glitch.
Incredible, they consider medical practicioners as asexual now? Is it too late to change my career choice?
Scrubs aren't gender-specific, are they ?
Ha! I just completed a survey on flea and tick products. The answers for all the questions were all of the format
a: definitely
b: probably
c: maybe
d: probably not
e: definitely not
One of the questions was "Do you specifically recommend products from the Merial product line or do you more often recommend products from the Bayer product line."
Yeah, definitely. No, wait. Definitely not. Um. Whatever. I will still take their $20....
So here is your choice: Do you primarily see yourself as a medical professional, or do you see yourself as a man? For me, the bits trump the career when it comes to describing who I am.
My first neurologist was transgendering. S/he would have loved this question. Answer: A
I'm sure I'm comparing apples to sides of beef, but some companies that do surveys could learn from Harris Poll. I've been taking surveys for them for many years. At the end of the survey they ask a question like "I saw mistakes in this survey" or "I think this survey was worth my time." If you say "no" they ask why.
Then -- get this -- they pay attention. And they do something about it.
At least twice now I've pointed out problems with the way questions were stated or the options given only to see a change for the better in a later survey.
Today's Captcha word: miedical. Obviously a portmanteau of medieval and medical.
Maybe, since it was on the internet, someone is working on a thesis, and timing how long it takes to answer the question e.g. neurologists only take xx minutes to figure it out whereas cardiologists take xx minutes. (See earlier post on frivolous research?)
Oh, don't be silly. Everyone knows girls can't be doctors!
(My word is thension. As in "I sink I'm having thome thension in my shoulderth.")
Proofreading=lost art.
These people are on to something!
If we get all medical students "fixed" then we won't have to worry about distractions such as sex, marriage, children distracting them from work.
Before long you won't be allowed to have a medical liscense if you aren't a Eunuch.
G. None of the above.
I guess when you become a specialist, your gender ceases to exist.
Little Calf Creamery. Delicious homemade ice cream and food in Thousand Oaks!


text:
CARDIFF, Wales, May 15 (UPI) -- India's tigers are facing extinction owing to a collapse in the variety of their mating partners and the resultant lack of genetic diversity, scientists say.
Researchers at Britain's Cardiff University, working with the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, said they found 93 percent of the DNA variants found in tigers shot during the period of British rule in India were not present in tigers today.
The genetic diversity needed for the species to survive had been "lost dramatically," Cardiff researcher Mike Bruford told the BBC.
The researchers were given access to the Natural History Museum of London's tiger collection, which allowed them to analyze the DNA variants in tigers killed in the period from 1858 to 1947 -- the era of the "British Raj" -- but which have disappeared today.
"We found that genetic diversity has been lost dramatically compared to the Raj tigers and what diversity remains has become much more subdivided into the small (20-120 individual) populations that exist today," Bruford said.
"This is due to loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation, meaning lower population sizes, and the prevention of tigers from dispersing as they once would have, which means their gene pool is no longer mixing across the subcontinent."
Of the fewer than 2,000 tigers left worldwide, 60 percent are in India, where the territory occupied by the big cats has declined more than 50 percent during the last three generations and mating now only occurs in 7 percent of its historical territory, the researchers said.


text:
Hannah Luce Begins to Walk Weeks After Surviving Plane Crash
Hannah Luce, daughter of Teen Mania founder Ron Luce, walked for the first time after surviving a last month's plane crash in Kansas. Her family says she made significant progress after many, including Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas, prayed for her.
"She's still in quite a bit of pain, but she is beginning to use her limbs more. In fact, just yesterday she walked all the way to the visitors area and back without a walker, which is the first time she's walked over the last three weeks," Ron Luce wrote on his ministry's blog Sunday.
Hannah Luce was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed four of her friends as they were going from Okla. to Iowa for Teen Mania's final Acquire the Fire event of the year. Their small plane made a crash landing and burst into flames in a filed in southeastern Kansas May 11.
Hannah, 22, continues to be in the burn center of the KU Medical Center in Kansas City and is recovering from burns on 28 percent of her body. But her family hopes to move her Monday morning to a hospital/rehab center in Dallas, Texas. She has had several surgeries for skin grafts.
Her skin is tender and painful, and is still growing back. She has to work out her muscles, which have not been used in the last three weeks. But she is in high spirits.
"Hannah continues to be encouraged by the many cards, letters, and gifts sent from all over," said the founder of one of the largest Christian youth ministry organizations in the country. "Even small gestures of generosity have moved Hannah deeply. Children have written her get-well letters, with their creative touch on them. Others who've been through similar traumas have written letters of encouragement, saying they're praying for her."
Among those who called to encourage Hannah is Gov. Brownback. "He said that, as he was passing through Chanute, KS the other day, people were still talking about the accident. Gov. Brownback listened to Hannah's story and then prayed for her, and that really lifted her spirit," Ron Luce said.
Those killed in the crash were the pilot Luke F. Sheets, 23, of Ephraim, Wis.; Austin G. Anderson, 27, of Ringwood, Okla.; Stephen J. Luth, 22, of Muscatine, Iowa; and Garrett V. Coble, 29, of Tulsa, Okla.
Anderson and Hannah survived the crash, and were able to walk to a nearby roadway and get help. However, Anderson succumbed to his injuries the following morning.
Hannah joined the Teen Mania staff in January after graduating from Oral Roberts University, but has been involved with the ministry for much of her life. She told The Christian Post in a 2006 interview that the passion to reach the younger generation for Christ is as much hers as it is her father's.
"I see my generation and they're being completely brainwashed by society, by the media and I see even their strategies … like they're trying to blind my generation," she told CP then. "That makes me mad; that makes me want to do something. I get excited. I get to come and travel with him and tell people that this is what's going on with my generation. They need Jesus and they need life and they need freedom."


text:
Summer 2016 Camps and Clinics
Accurate Lacrosse: Founded by Ryan Buerkle (former Hillsborough Youth, Middle School, High School programs and Kean University standout). Personal training for individuals, small groups and teams are available. Please contact Ryan at 908.304.4348, email@example.com or http://accuratelacrosse.com/ for more information.
Blue Star Lacrosse is a new program based in New Jersey with a passion for teaching the game.
June 27- July 1, Princeton Day Camp @ The Hun School
July 5 - July 8, Basking Ridge Day Camp @ The Pingry School
July 22 - July 25, Overnight Camp @ The Hun School
First Class Lacrosse Plus is headed by Mike Webster, the founder of the JERSEY JAM boy's lacrosse jamboree held at Rutgers University every May. He is also the Head Varsity Coach of The Pingry School, has been inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the New Jersey State Coaches Hall of Fame. Coach Webster was a midfielder on two NCAA Division One National Championship teams while a player at Johns Hopkins University.
June 27 - June 30, "Unstoppable 64" Lacrosse Camp
Boys in current grades 7 and 8 (classes of 2020 and 2021)
Pingry School, Basking Ridge Campus
Cost: $360
Click here for camp flyer
July 25 - July 29, "Total Package" Lacrosse Camp
Time: 9:00-12:00
Boys and Girls in current grades 2-8
Pingry School, Basking Ridge Campus
Cost: $375
Click here for camp flyer
Camp Website for registration and more information: www.firstclasslacrosse.com
Test Sports Club Lacrosse Academy: Personalized, one on one instruction is the secret to increased skills and increased confidence. Personal instruction ($50/hr), small group instruction (5 players/$100/hr).
2-day mini camps ($100) Ages 5-12:
June 23 & 24, 9AM-11AM: Beginner Only
July 11 & 12, 9AM-11AM: Mixed Levels
July 21 & 21, 9AM-11AM: Mixed Levels
Call (732) 921-7652 or click here.
New Privacy Policy


text:
Michael Welch captures dramatic video of twister from a KFC parking lot in Newcastle, Oklahoma.
Michael Welch was midshift into his job at KFC in Newcastle, Okla., on Monday afternoon when he noticed hail pounding the parking lot outside the restaurant.
Then, as he looked into the distance, he saw the wall cloud of an enormous tornado rotating in front of him.
"It was very large and very fast," he said. "I could see debris flying all over."
The 24-year-old cook grabbed his HTC cell phone and dashed into the parking lot and started recording video. "Probably not the best thing to do, but I did it."
Most of his coworkers took shelter, but his manager stayed at the door while he filmed, Welch said.
"Oh, my God!" he screams on his video -- seen by thousands on NBC News and YouTube -- as the tornado, which killed at least 24 people and injured scores more in the area, passes.
He said an F4 tornado that hit his house in Blanchard on May 24, 2011, helped alleviate his fear.
"I think that gave me the courage to go ahead and go outside," he said. "The power of the funnel cloud was amazing."
He said he had no idea a storm was coming until he saw it with his own eyes.
But now, his YouTube video showing a street-level view of the massive tornado plowing through Newcastle and Moore stands as an iconic record of the day's event.
"I've talked to so many people today I can't even count ," he said.
- Monster tornado deals death, destruction in Oklahoma
- Children found drowned in tornado-flattened school
- Video: Timelapse – nightmare in the suburbs
- Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
- What you're seeing: Videos, images from ground
- Six of the worst twisters in U.S. history
- Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past, future
- How to help tornado victims


text:
Space, The Final Frontier...
To insure your action figure collection, get in touch with Collectibles Insurance, the official insurance company of the Figures.com network. Say "Figures.com" to get 5% off your first term premiums.
To buy action figures, take a look at BigBadToyStore.com, AlterEgoComics.com, PlasmaInfusion.com, Toynk.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, and MonkeyDepot.com.
In Star Trek lore, there is no ship more iconic to the franchise than the U.S.S. Enterprise. Its been made into a toy countless times before but here we have a first in that its built by you, brick by brick. LEGO has the Star Wars license with much success so Hasbro is fighting back with their Star Trek KRE-O toys.
The set comes with 432 pieces, which actually doesnt seem too bad for a ship of this nature, but that might also include pieces that build the minifigures or KREONS. There are five different KREONs unique to this set: Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and two Specialists. The specialists actually dont really seem to belong here, even after seeing the movie. It could be one way of giving every set its heroes and its villains but I think its a misplaced opportunity for some really unique alien Starfleet members.
In order to build all the members of the Starship Enterprise, you will need to purchase most every set available. To get Sulu, youll need Spocks Volcano Mission (read our review HERE). To get Uhura, youll need the Klingon Bird-of-Prey (read our review HERE). For Scotty, Transporter Trouble is the set for you. The only key member of the Enterprise not accounted for now is Chekov.
The KREON minifigures included in this set all have the same amount of articulation, which is around 8 points, and they also have their own phaser weapon as well.
Building the U.S.S. enterprise is no small feat, and will take approximately two hours of your time. The color instructions are easy to follow for the most part but there is one section that is problematic. Theres a section beneath the main deck of the bridge that doesnt stay snapped together. Its an area that could be superglued together if you so desired and would not hurt the overall integrity of the ship. It actually might improve upon it since you wont have to deal with bricks falling out so often.
The rest of the ship is easy to build and also features Light Tech, a new building block piece that lights up with a touch of the button. For this ship in particular, three AAA alkaline batteries are required and not included. Once in though, a single button at the base of the ship can get everything lit up in no time.
The bridge serves as a mini playset for our KREONs complete with computers and a large view screen. Decals are included for more color and details. Unfortunately, the Kreons will need to be removed prior to attaching the lid to the Enterprise.
Also a feature of the Enterprise is a launching missile, but you can just as easily toss it aside to prevent losing it.
The U.S.S. Enterprise is a lot of fun and a nifty display piece when all is said and done. You can find it at ToysRUs and Amazon for about $45-50.
Review and Photography by David Yeh
Review Samples Courtesy of Hasbro


text: Raith 13 Posted April 15, 2010 It was like the ringing of some great bell. It was felt everywhere by everyone, those closest found them selves completely paralysed as the vibrations rippled through their bodies, man and beast stood still and looked for the source of the noise, even the tides changed as the sound spread outwards. Five great pillars of black fell from the sky striking across the face of the world, their impact scarred the land as they drove into the soil, each pillar stood taller than the highest trees and glowed with an inner light revealing hundreds of dimly glimmering runes. Dark whispers claim they are old magic, older than the oldest myths and legends, beyond perhaps the War of God and the ages since, from a time where the world was known by another name and mankind had had worked lost wonders. Across the world powers both vast and subtle mobilise to control the pillars, to unlock their secrets or to prevent others from doing the same. In the absence of knowledge can the purpose of these objects still be divined? And in the shadows others stir, curious for answers of their own. ---------- Its that time again when I get my yearly campaign underway. This year things will work a little differently, the campaign is bigger a bit more complex and starts off with the highest levels of play. And there is not just one way to win the Campaign but each player will have a unique goal to obtain. "Dark is the Fallen Sky" will run once a month on the 4th Saturday and following Sunday from April 24th until the end of November. To play in the Campaign you will require at least 150 levels worth of Anima characters but to completely participate each player can have up to 400 Levels. These 400 levels are a "pool" each a player will be able to draw from and field teams in a range of different battle sizes. Unlike the previous campaign there will be no increase in the number of available characters, though changes to the available pool may occur. As usual I will be hosting this Campaign through Mind Games (Melbourne City Store) and game days should start around midday, though as the 24th is Anzac Day it will begin later @ 1:30pm. Mind Games244 Swanston StreetMelbourne CBD, Victoria Australia To participate in the campaign there is a $5 registration fee which will be put towards the prizes. Please send an email of your intent to participate in this campaign to email@example.com, there is no cut off date for entry into the Campaign and anyone is welcome to start playing at any of the events days. While there will be an official weekend each Month additional matches can be scheduled Prizes for the campaign will include... A Gift Voucher for Mind GamesA copy of the limited advantage card Dragon's Bloodand a copy of the Limited Edition Khaine figure. Additional prizes may be offered. As this will be a campaign their are a number of additional rules which will be in effect. These rules are summarized on a handy pdf which you can download by right-clicking the link and selecting "Save As...": Here Once the campaign gets underway I will be posting reports on its progress in this thread so everyone can see how the campaign is developing. If you have any questions about the event or the rules please post here or send me an email at firstname.lastname@example.com and people are welcome to utilize these rules or portion of them for their own campaigns if they wish, though please give me some credit if you do. The rules presented are still undergoing some evaluation and may change slightly in the next week. - Raith Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Lotto! Easy and fun - the way all games should be. Played every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.
Lotto is the most popular Lottery game and the great news is that you can play three times a week! Every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday night, the Lotto draw machines randomly selects coloured balls numbered from one to 45. Eight balls in total are chosen. The first six drawn are called the Winning Numbers. There are also two more balls chosen, these are referred to as the Supplementary Numbers.
Lotto Superdraw coming soon! Click here for more information.
OZ Lotto is a whole new ball game!
OZ Lotto is an exciting seven number game with seven prize divisions. A ticket in the OZ Lotto draw every Tuesday gives players the best odds of winning a prize of any of our Lotto games. Every Tuesday night the OZ Lotto draw machine randomly selects balls numbered from 1 to 45. Nine balls in total are chosen. The first seven are called the Winning Numbers. There are two more balls chosen and these are called Supplementary Numbers. You can buy OZ Lotto tickets up to 6.00pm on Tuesdays.
Click here to view this weeks Jackpots.
Powerball is a fun twist on the normal Lotto game.
Powerball is one of the most exciting numbers games as it jackpots often and offers players the chance to win multi-million dollar prizes. In fact, if you do win a Powerball Division One prize you are most likely to have won it on your own making you an instant multi-millionaire.
What if you woke up today to find you had won $20,000 a month for 20 years?
Set for Life is an exciting game with 7 day entries and draws every day of the week. When you win 1st Prize, instead of a single one-off payment, you get an ongoing prize of $20,000 a month for 20 years and its guaranteed for up to 4 winners.
An extra bit of fun - Super 66.
Super 66 is a simple numbers game that gives you an extra chance to win on Saturday nights. And you don't even have to select the numbers – the computer does it for you. You get a separate ticket containing six random numbers from 0 to 9. The idea of the game is to match your six numbers with the six Winning Numbers drawn each Saturday night - in order from either left or right. The more numbers you match in order, the bigger your prize money.
Brighten your day - Cash 3
Cash 3 is a great little game, you could win up to $500 every day of the week or more if you play more games. All to do is choose a 3 digit number 000 to 999. If those numbers that night, you're a winner.
There's something devilishly fun about scratching a Scratchie! You never know what's going to be underneath … $2 or $250,000. Then there's the game itself. Scratch'n'Win tickets are entertaining and a fun break from your day. What's more, there's always a colourful new ticket coming out to get you scratching.
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Amish research helps UMd. docs tailor treatments to patients
Research finds genetic variant that predicts a person's response to popular blood thinner
The use of DNA to heal and treat people is a crucial science, and doctors are now able to tailor treatment of certain diseases based on a person's genome thanks to the help of researchers in Maryland and an unlikely group of people -- the Amish.
As the sun comes up over lush rolling farmlands in Lancaster, Pa., the Amish are already on the go. As cars whiz by, some are in their usual horse and buggy, while others drive scooters along the town's streets to work.
While the Amish shun many of the nuances of the modern world, they are -- ironically -- embracing cutting-edge science, 11 News I-Team reporter Lisa Robinson said.
Susie Fisher, a member of the Amish community, gets up at 4:30 a.m. daily to do her personal chores and then goes to work at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Amish Research Clinic.
"It's great. I love it. I always wanted to be a nurse, and this is as close as I will ever get to being a nurse," she said.
That's because the Amish don't go to schooling beyond the eighth grade, Robinson reported. Still, Fisher works as a liaison for the research clinic, which is making history with its groundbreaking work on pharmagenetics and personalized medicine.
The project is the brainchild the University of Maryland's Dr. Alan Shuldiner. Since 1995, he has been working with the Amish to identify genetic markers that can help formulate drugs and treatments for many different diseases. To do that, they are sequencing whole genomes, which are the genetic materials unique to every individual.
Amish great choice for genomic studies
Shuldiner said there's a reason why he chose the Amish.
"The gene pool is a small number of founders that came over in the early 1700s. Those genes have proliferated over 17 generations, but they haven't changed -- no new genes have come in. So, it's much easier to do genomic studies," he explained.
"I think he made the right decision picking the Amish," Fisher said. "It's a hard working life. I would never trade it, though."
When Fisher is not at the clinic preparing kits for blood draws, she's out with nurse coordinator Mary Morrissey. Together, they make cold calls to Amish households in search of new research participants.
"I have some that will do all of the studies and some that might be a bit more selective, but as a whole group, they're very willing to help out and volunteer," Morrissey said.
"The goal is to see if we can help people down the road, if they have a problem like cholesterol or high blood pressure, so maybe we can figure out how to control that," Fisher said.
The research has led to discoveries in cases related to diabetes and heart disease, to name a few. It has also helped Shuldiner in his work with pharmagenetics.
"(This is) where a genetic profile can predict whether a person will be responsive or receptive to a certain medicine," Shuldiner explained.
Research leads to heart disease breakthrough
In studying the Amish, Shuldiner found that 25 percent of the population carries a genetic variant, and that can predict who will not respond to the anti-coagulant drug Plavix, also known as clopidogrel, which is a commonly and widely used blood thinner for heart disease patients. Knowing that in advance can help doctors determine what medication might work best, improving a patient's outcome and eliminating some guesswork.
"Now, when a patient comes to the University of Maryland cardiac catheterization lab, they are offered a genetic test that will predict whether they will be responsive or not to clopidogrel," Shuldiner said.
The contributions by the Amish in the Plavix study have made a difference in 50-year-old David Stark's life. Stark said he felt terrible pain when he had a second heart attack in May.
"It was a burning pain all across my chest, like somebody had a steam iron and they were ironing my chest," he explained.
He had his first heart attack several months prior in November, had an angioplasty and stent put in and was put on Plavix, among other drugs.
"They found out I had blocked the same location where I had the stent put in," he said.
That's when researchers at UMMC offered Stark genetic testing. He was tested for variations in a gene called CYP2-C-19.
"He is one of the 25 percent of the population predicted genetically to be a non-responder," Shuldiner said.
"They put in two more stents in the exact same place, and I have been switched off Plavix to a different medicine called Effient," Stark said. "It would be nice if we had discovered this the first time. I wouldn't have gone through that second heart attack."
While there's no guarantee of that, there is great promise in pharmagenetics and personalized medicine, Shuldiner said.
"In the not too distant future, children -- even newborns -- will have their whole genome sequenced that will be done with a drop of blood. The cost of the whole genome sequencing is going way down within the next year. It will cost less than $1,000 for a whole genome of a newborn to be sequenced," he said.
That would be used to inform doctors for the rest of a child's life of what diseases they are susceptible to and the therapies that will work best to treat their specific diseases, he said.
For Fisher and other Amish people who are traveling that path of modern medicine, they said they do it to help humanity. They are able to mix science with their most fundamental beliefs, and for Fisher, it comes down to one thing.
"I see God's wonderful works," she said.


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A quarterly publication targeted at leaders of commerce and the community—is designed to reflect the unique personalities who contribute to the economic and social energy of the Capital Region. Since 1989, Edmontonians continues to serve the expressed need for a credible medium to report on the activities that contribute to the economic and social vitality of the community. Edmontonians' experienced writers, editors and designers have captured the fabric of our city with insightful writing and groundbreaking reporting. Our sophisticated features, narratives, profiles and columns underscore the attributes that make Greater Edmonton great.
Edmontonians publishes quarterly and focuses on the positive developments occurring in the Capital Region. Our unique editorial approach provides in- depth coverage of emerging trends that deserve a closer look. In the newsmagazine you will find topics relating to all aspects of business such as International Business Relations, Women in Business, Sizzling Twenty under 30, Family Business Reports, Guides to Charity Galas, and numerous columns written by some of Edmonton's most influential leaders.


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Ted is a raunchy, outrageous and hilariously funny live-action/CG-animated comedy from the zany mind of Seth MacFarlane, the man behind the animated TV show Family Guy. Bringing his boundary-pushing brand of humor to the big screen for the first time as writer, director, producer and voice star of the bear itself, the story is centered around John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a grown man whose childhood wish brought his cherished teddy bear to life. Almost 30 years later, Ted is still by John's side, to the increasing annoyance of his girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis), who issues an ultimatum for John to leave his boyhood friend behind and enter adulthood. For more on the film, here's four clips.
At the film's press day, co-stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, along with Seth MacFarlane, talked about how this film came about, starring opposite a teddy bear, how smooth the special effects turned out to be, figuring out where to draw the line with offensive humor, how Sam Jones (Flash Gordon) ended up in the film, and deciding on the specific look for Ted. Check out what they had to say after the jump.
Question: Seth, what took so long for you to make a movie?
SETH MacFARLANE: Family Guy had that little cancellation thing happen to it, and I wanted to make sure that it was fully on its feet, after coming back, before I stepped away to do a film because it did mean stepping away from the show completely for at least a year, and that was something that I hadn't done yet. This was an idea that had actually been floating around in my head for a while. I had originally conceived it as an animated series idea and, for a number of reasons, shelved it. And then, when it came time to do my first movie, it seemed like a story that would make a much better film than a series.
Mark and Mila, when you initially signed on, were you worried about co-starring opposite a bear? Did you wonder whether it would work, in terms of looking at the eye-line and the stuff you'd have to do with him?
MARK WAHLBERG: I was a little nervous at first, but once we started getting into it, I felt comfortable pretty quickly. It was more of a problem working with Mila. She's a tough cookie.
MILA KUNIS: You know what? It actually wasn't so bad. I didn't have very much physical interaction with the bear. Mine was very circumstantial, whether the bear was to the right of me or to the left of me or to the front of me. I think Mark had it the hardest. For me, it wasn't so frightening. You have a stick and two eyes. As far as the animation or the look of the bear, I was never too concerned with that. There's not a question of why MacFarlane can do that, and do it incredibly well.
WAHLBERG: They had done a test, too. We got to see a little bit of the bear, before we started shooting. There was a concern of whether it would go into the scene seamlessly with the chemistry, even though Seth and I were having a great time acting opposite each other, and whether it would translate when you're putting the bear into the actual scene.
Seth, did the special effects turn out to be more of a pain in the ass than you expected?
MacFARLANE: No, the special effects were surprisingly a smooth part of the process. We tried a fairly new technique of doing it all live on set, to get an improvisational feel, but it went surprisingly smooth. We had two great studios – Tippett and Iloura – that just knocked it out of the park for us.
Did you re-write a lot of Ted's dialogue in post?
MacFARLANE: Yeah, we had a little bit of liberty to do new Ted lines in post, in case something didn't work. That was a luxury that we took advantage of. We would screen the movie and, if something didn't work, we'd try a different line at the next screening. That's one of the good things about an animated character.
The movie has a lot for college audiences. What do you want them to take away from this film?
WAHLBERG: Well, go back and smoke another joint and see it again. It's always better the second time around. You were so wasted the first time, you probably missed some jokes.
MacFARLANE: That answer works for me, too.
KUNIS: Me, too.
Mark, your comic timing is just so impeccable. Who were comic idols, growing up?
WAHLBERG: I don't know. I just grew up watching a lot of old television with my father, like F Troop and Barney Miller. [Det. Stan "Wojo"] Wojciehowicz would probably be the one to best describe one of my comic idols. Does anybody know who Wojciehowicz was? I just grew up watching TV. It's all in the material. I approach a comedy the same way I do a drama. I try to make it as real as possible. Thankfully, Seth was into that. I was worried that maybe he'd want me to do a couple prat falls, and that's not really my thing.
Seth, you're used to a TV-14 constraint on Family Guy, but for this, you knew it would be rated R. Did you find yourself pulling back while having freedom to do more?
MacFARLANE: Yeah. You're not dealing with the restrictions imposed by the FCC. They're self-imposed. In a way, that does make it harder. You actually have to think about it, as opposed to just taking for granted that you're not going to be able to do this. With a movie like this, most of it was language. This movie's been labeled hard R, but I don't think of it as a hard R movie. It's a fairly moderately R movie. There's no graphic sex and there's no heavy drug use. It's R for language. So, if that doesn't bother you, you're fine. The first cut of this movie had a lot more uses of the word "fuck," and we did cut that down somewhat because we found that, even though it's an R-rated comedy and you can do whatever you want, it was starting to eat into the sweetness of the story a little bit. So, you do have to impose restraints on yourself, and it is more difficult than just being told by someone that you can't do something.
You do a brilliant job of showing the clash between youth and adulthood in both this and the TV show. Why is that so prevalent for you?
MacFARLANE: Adults acting like children and children acting like adults is generally a pretty reliable comic device. On Family Guy, you have Stewie, who is a baby that acts like an adult and Peter who's a man that acts like a child. This movie is a bit more textured and has a lot more shades to it, but in terms of the dynamic, we're essentially playing the teddy bear as the physical manifestation – in a symbolic or literal way – of John's inability to grow up and get on with his life.
How difficult was it to prepare for the hotel room fight with Ted?
WAHLBERG: Well, I didn't have to do anything to prepare other than just trust Seth. I just felt so ridiculous flopping around in that room, by myself. But, everybody loves that scene.
MacFARLANE: The whole joke of it was that we wanted to play it as realistically as possible. We wanted it to feel like a fist fight in The Bourne Identity, except one of the characters happens to be a teddy bear. I think we pulled that off. Mark just sold it, 150%. Even without the bear in there, when you look at that raw footage with the sound effects and him getting the shit kicked out of him by this invisible adversary, it actually still kind of works. Hopefully, we made it painfully realistic.
Mark and Mila, what do you think is unique or special about Seth MacFarlane's humor, both in his animated series and this movie?
KUNIS: I've done so many interviews about Seth that it's kind of redundant for me to say this, but over the years, from Family Guy to Ted, I think that Seth's humor is incredibly socially relevant. It's not humor for the sake of being humorous. And I think that there's a certain linear story to his humor. It's very consistent and it's smart. It doesn't make you feel dumb. I've always said that he's brilliant at what he does because he sets people up in low-brow situations with high-brow humor, and that's one of the hardest things to do. Also, all of his humor is rooted in truth and honesty. From Family Guy's flashbacks to the songs that some of the characters break into to the fact that there's a movie coming out about a talking teddy bear that nobody seems to be questioning, it's all rooted in truth. It's very grounded humor. Nowadays, it's very rare to get that.
WAHLBERG: That was good. I was just going to say that he's the funniest motherfucker I've ever met.
KUNIS: I could have said that, too. Fuck! I've only known him for 13 years.
Seth, when it comes to some of the more offensive humor, how do you figure out where to draw the line?
MacFARLANE: In a movie like this, we adhere to the same rule that we generally do with the animated show, which is, if you're going to make fun of one group, you've gotta make fun of them all. The cliche is "equal opportunity offender." In this movie, pretty much every religion, race and creed is poked fun at. I think that, if you're going to make fun of one group of people, you've gotta go all across the board. As far as something going across the line, the systems that are in place, as far as the screenings and audience testing, make it pretty clear what's over the line and what's not. If something gets a gasp, eight times in a row, at eight screenings, you know it's probably got to go. There's been a couple of those jokes. Even on Family Guy, we do screenings of each episode before it goes to full animation and our own staff is not shy about going, "No, no, no, that's way over the line!" If you're getting enough laughs on the way there, it's probably okay. If even your friends are telling you that it's offensive, then they're probably right.
How many gasps did you get when you were testing Ted?
MacFARLANE: There was only one that I can think of, that I won't repeat here because it didn't work. For the most part, by the time it got to the test screenings, we had excised most of that material. There was one that we pulled out because the audiences just thought it was too over the line.
Seth, why do you love Sam Jones so much, and why do you hate Brandon Routh?
MacFARLANE: I don't hate Brandon Routh. The jokes at the end of the movie are probably the closest things to what people may expect from me because of shows like Family Guy. It's a satirical jab. I'm sure he's a very, very nice guy. The Flash Gordon idea was just because it's a cult movie that a lot of people know. It's ridiculous and absurd, and it seemed like a funny piece of pop culture for John and Ted to bond over. It was something that worked as their movie that was the symbol of their friendship. We just looked up Sam Jones and asked if he wanted to come do it, and he was very enthusiastic.
In this film, you can really understand why Lori wants Ted to move out and John to grow up. Was that intentional, so that you didn't make her into the bitchy girlfriend?
MacFARLANE: Nine times out of 10, in a movie like this, you do see the image of the hands on the hips and the, "Stop this nasty behavior!," tone. That's one of the reasons we wanted Mila for this. We tried to make sure it wasn't that on the page, but even where we missed spots, Mila was there to very shrewdly, with laser-light precision, make sure that did not happen. The character has a very valid point. She had the hardest job in the movie, but in a lot of ways, it's the character with the most realistic goal. She has this guy who's very childish and she likes those things about him. She likes the fact that he's not perfect. She likes the challenge of maybe having to fix this guy, a little bit. But, at the same time, in the higher part of her brain, she wants the stability and she wants the responsible boyfriend who's going to step up. I hope that's very relatable. I think her beef with him is legit, in the movie.
KUNIS: Yeah, everything that Seth said is correct. It was a hard thing to do because you want to play the fine line of not having to be too cool 'cause then that's not realistic, but you don't want to be the nagging girl in the film because then you're stuck being the nagging girl in the film. Seth was very responsive to anytime that there was an argument that I had, regarding the character's dialogue, when the response wasn't justified. In all honesty, we had many discussions on set over it, and it was always because I was like, "This is coming across too bitchy. It's not how a woman would react." More times than not, he was like, "Okay, how do you propose we fix the problem?" It was awesome because it allowed me to help make the character be what I wanted her to be, but with Seth MacFarlane's voice. It was very collaborative, and he was very open-minded to the idea. It's a hard character to write, especially for a man. I wouldn't even know where to begin, and I'm a female. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. You're stuck in this weird limbo.
Mila, how do you stay grounded and what makes you happy in life?
KUNIS: I don't know. I guess I'm very honest and I speak my mind, at all times. I think that, if anything, helps me stay grounded because I will say what I think, but I don't expect the yes, in return. If you ask a question, there's always two answers, a yes and a no. You're not always right. I will fight to prove that I'm right, but I will accept being wrong. I have an amazing family. I have a truly incredible group of friends that I can count on one hand. I'm so blessed and lucky to be in a position to work with people that I respect and look up to and admire, and actually want to show up to work with. I think a lot of that speaks for itself. I am able to do the job that I love and surround myself with the people that I like to go to work with and work for, for 17 hours a day, and people whose opinion I trust and whose outlook I respect. I don't really know how to answer that question because I'm sure many people would disagree and tell you that I'm a horrible human being. But, I do believe that it all depends on who you surround yourself with. What you put out is what you get back in return. I work hard. I work my ass off, and I've worked that way for 20 years. But, me working hard, I don't have to show you how hard I work. As long as I know how hard I work, that's all that matters. I think people get so caught up in trying to prove to everybody else how hard they work that they lose all sense of what they do and why they do it. As long as I do my homework and I know I did, and I show up and do my job, at the end of the day, that's all that matters. And then, I can have a life.
Mila, is comedy your favorite genre to act in, or are you interested in other genres as well?
KUNIS: Somebody was like, "After Black Swan, we didn't really expect you to follow this up with Ted?," and I literally went, "Why, because it's funny? Does being funny somehow take away from the quality?" It doesn't. I've had this argument with MacFarlane many times, but I don't think I'm funny. I really don't.
MacFARLANE: I disagree.
KUNIS: Thanks, but I don't. That doesn't mean that I don't love comedy, but I would never be able to go on a stage and do a roast. I think I would panic! That being said, I love comedy when it's written well. When someone like Seth MacFarlane gives me dialogue to say that I think is brilliant, I will say the shit out of it and I will make it work to my best ability. But, I will not go and do something that I don't believe in, whether that be comedy, horror, sci-fi, action or whatever genre. It doesn't matter. It's about quality. If I love Ted and I think that's a good movie, I don't care if it's funny or sad, as long as it's good. It's just entertainment. So, I will go in whatever direction I'm drawn to. After Ted, I went and did Oz: The Great and Powerful. I am dying to know what genre people are going to put that movie in. And then, after that one, I went and did Hell & Back, which is a stop-motion animation, R-rated movie. And then, I went and did Blood Ties, which is a cop drama. None of this makes sense. If you look at my movies, they all look like a crazy person chose them, who's erratic and has no lineage whatsoever, but I choose the work that I believe in.
MacFARLANE: You bring in A-list actors to an animated show and it separates the men from the boys. Instantly, you see who is a pretty face and who actually has the chops. We've had plenty of A-list people who have come in and we've seen the Emperor's clothes. For all these years, we've thrown a lot of very, very subtle comedy at Mila, for the role of Meg, and you're not seeing her lovely face, you're hearing her voice. All you're getting is her ability, and it's tremendous. That, to me, is the best example of all. You are hearing her voice and you are hearing her skill of her comedic timing, and she's getting laughs and has been for 10 years. That's worth noting.
This film is very influenced by Boston. How did that come about?
WAHLBERG: The movie was already written to take place in Boston. I don't know if Seth even trusted that I could do a Boston accent. Nobody was really doing the accents. Everything that has to do with the movie in Boston is Seth. It was already on the page.
MacFARLANE: The comparison I always make is to Ghostbusters, as weird as that is. To me, one of the reasons that movie worked was that you had this ridiculous fantastical element to the story, but it was set against, not just a realistic city, but a city we all know. There were ghosts running around and these exterminators who had to eliminate them, but New York is the very familiar and very real New York, with all of its warts, that we know. It grounded everything and earned you the rest of the stuff. That was kind of what I wanted this movie to feel like. You have a talking bear, so the rest of the movie should be as real and grounded as possible to earn that. One of the things that you can accomplish that with is by setting it in an actual city with an actual regional flavor.
Mark, what made you decide to do a supplement line with GNC?
WAHLBERG: I've always wanted to be in the health and wellness business. I try to encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle. If you want to smoke pot and drink beers, do it on the weekend. During the week, eat healthy and exercise.
Seth, can you talk about the choices in the music and how much it adds to the humor of the story?
MacFARLANE: With the music, they're song choices that fit with the movie. I'm a film score junkie. I'm the world's biggest John Williams fan. I wanted this movie to have a classic film score because I felt like what it would do was play against the edginess of the comedy and earn you some of the harder jokes. You have to have that to balance things out. With Family Guy, for years, that's what we've done. We've got these hard-edged jokes, but we have a pretty serious musical style. I think it works in tandem with each other.
Did Ted always look like Ted, or was there a process for deciding how Ted would look?
MacFARLANE: I wanted to keep the bear's design very simple. There's a style of 2D animation that The Simpsons employs and that Family Guy employs. When Homer Simpson is being addressed and he's just sitting there listening, it's just a blank, wide-eyed stare. There's something 100 times funnier about that, then if there were a series of Disney-esque, subtle reactions. Each audience member can imprint what they think is going on inside his head, based on their own bullshit, and I wanted to do the same thing with Ted. Oftentimes, CG characters are so humanlike that they come off kind of creepy looking. Have you ever seen Jack Frost, that movie with Michael Keaton, with that terrifying snowman that just gave you nightmares? That would be an example of CG gone wrong, and they all acknowledged it, after that movie. I wanted to keep Ted simple. His eyes are very blank. There's a little expressiveness with the eyebrows, but it's a pretty simple design and that was deliberate. I wanted to leave enough to the imagination that what that expression is or what that thought process is would be maybe a little different for each audience member.
For more on Ted, here's all our previous coverage.


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Editors' note: Waiting in line is a timeless form of torture. Here's a story from the archives that explains why.
SOME years ago, executives at a Houston airport faced a troubling customer-relations issue. Passengers were lodging an inordinate number of complaints about the long waits at baggage claim. In response, the executives increased the number of baggage handlers working that shift. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight minutes, well within industry benchmarks. But the complaints persisted.
Puzzled, the airport executives undertook a more careful, on-site analysis. They found that it took passengers a minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven more minutes to get their bags. Roughly 88 percent of their time, in other words, was spent standing around waiting for their bags.
So the airport decided on a new approach: instead of reducing wait times, it moved the arrival gates away from the main terminal and routed bags to the outermost carousel. Passengers now had to walk six times longer to get their bags. Complaints dropped to near zero.
This story hints at a general principle: the experience of waiting, whether for luggage or groceries, is defined only partly by the objective length of the wait. "Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself," notes the M.I.T. operations researcher Richard Larson, widely considered to be the world's foremost expert on lines. Occupied time (walking to baggage claim) feels shorter than unoccupied time (standing at the carousel). Research on queuing has shown that, on average, people overestimate how long they've waited in a line by about 36 percent.
This is also why one finds mirrors next to elevators. The idea was born during the post-World War II boom, when the spread of high-rises led to complaints about elevator delays. The rationale behind the mirrors was similar to the one used at the Houston airport: give people something to occupy their time, and the wait will feel shorter. With the mirrors, people could check their hair or slyly ogle other passengers. And it worked: almost overnight, the complaints ceased.
The drudgery of unoccupied time also accounts in large measure for the popularity of impulse-buy items, which earn supermarkets about $5.5 billion annually. The tabloids and packs of gum offer relief from the agony of waiting.
Our expectations further affect how we feel about lines. Uncertainty magnifies the stress of waiting, while feedback in the form of expected wait times and explanations for delays improves the tenor of the experience.
And beating expectations buoys our mood. All else being equal, people who wait less than they anticipated leave happier than those who wait longer than expected. This is why Disney, the universally acknowledged master of applied queuing psychology, overestimates wait times for rides, so that its guests — never customers, always guests — are pleasantly surprised when they ascend Space Mountain ahead of schedule.
This is a powerful ploy because our memories of a queuing experience, to use an industry term, are strongly influenced by the final moments, according to research conducted by Ziv Carmon, a professor of marketing at the business school Insead, and the behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman. When a long wait ends on a happy note — the line speeds up, say — we tend to look back on it positively, even if we were miserable much of the time. Conversely, if negative emotions dominate in the final minutes, our retrospective audit of the process will skew toward cynicism, even if the experience as a whole was relatively painless.
Professors Carmon and Kahneman have also found that we are more concerned with how long a line is than how fast it's moving. Given a choice between a slow-moving short line and a fast-moving long one, we will often opt for the former, even if the waits are identical. (This is why Disney hides the lengths of its lines by wrapping them around buildings and using serpentine queues.)
Perhaps the biggest influence on our feelings about lines, though, has to do with our perception of fairness. When it comes to lines, the universally acknowledged standard is first come first served: any deviation is, to most, a mark of iniquity and can lead to violent queue rage. Last month a man was stabbed at a Maryland post office by a fellow customer who mistakenly thought he'd cut in line. Professor Larson calls these unwelcome intrusions "slips" and "skips."
The demand for fairness extends beyond mere self-interest. Like any social system, lines are governed by an implicit set of norms that transcend the individual. A study of fans in line for U2 tickets found that people are just as upset by slips and skips that occur behind them, and thus don't lengthen their wait, as they are by those in front of them.
Surveys show that many people will wait twice as long for fast food, provided the establishment uses a first-come-first-served, single-queue ordering system as opposed to a multi-queue setup. Anyone who's ever had to choose a line at a grocery store knows how unfair multiple queues can seem; invariably, you wind up kicking yourself for not choosing the line next to you moving twice as fast.
But there's a curious cognitive asymmetry at work here. While losing to the line at our left drives us to despair, winning the race against the one to our right does little to lift our spirits. Indeed, in a system of multiple queues, customers almost always fixate on the line they're losing to and rarely the one they're beating.
Fairness also dictates that the length of a line should be commensurate with the value of the product or service for which we're waiting. The more valuable it is, the longer one is willing to wait for it. Hence the supermarket express line, a rare, socially sanctioned violation of first come first served, based on the assumption that no reasonable person thinks a child buying a candy bar should wait behind an old man stocking up on provisions for the Mayan apocalypse.
Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours each year waiting in line. The dominant cost of waiting is an emotional one: stress, boredom, that nagging sensation that one's life is slipping away. The last thing we want to do with our dwindling leisure time is squander it in stasis. We'll never eliminate lines altogether, but a better understanding of the psychology of waiting can help make those inevitable delays that inject themselves into our daily lives a touch more bearable. And when all else fails, bring a book.


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- Sources say Paula Abdul is basically done with American Idol. Just like when she sees a mediocre contestant, it's all: "Thank you, but no." [MSNBC Scoop]
- Former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe says maybe it was the producers' fault that "stalker" Paula Goodspeed ended up in the same room with Abdul on the show: "We've seen over 700,000 contestants. And one has made a terrible, terrible mistake." [People]
- Macaulay Culkin's sister Dakota died yesterday in a terrible traffic accident in L.A.; she stepped off a curb and was struck by a car. [TMZ]
- Scarlett Johansson talks about hubs Ryan Reynolds: "Getting married is a huge moment in anyone's life, and the few months leading up to it were a little crazy. But Ryan and I are in love, and we're enjoying evolving our relationship together. I feel that my life and my work are heading in the right direction." Also? They're both very romantic. Just so you know. [Perez Hilton]
- Holy sunglasses! Stevie Wonder might be the next contestant on Dancing With The Stars. Stevie sez: "It'd be fun. It's not impossible, but right now it's just a thought… Come on. You've got to think. If I have 7 children, I've got to be able to dance right?" [Perez Hilton]
- Oooh, a book exposing secrets about Martha Stewart? Written by a member of her own family? Intimate details of Martha's boozing, eating and crying binges… the stars she hates, what really happened in prison and her "special" lady friend. A good thing? [Jossip]
- Tom Cruise's new flick, Valkyrie: Reviews are meh. Not good for a $90 million picture. [Fox 411]
- Sienna Miller and Balthazar Getty are still going strong; they were seen checking out some rock show in Hollywood. [Yahoo News via E!]
- Watch Sienna miller act like a mental patient as she wanders around in a hospital gown and smears blood on a wall in this video by UK band The Hours. Deep. [Just Jared]
- Mariah Carey's world tour is canceled. Bun in oven? [Perez Hilton]
- Britney's kid burped while she was wishing people Merry Christmas in a video or her site. Charming! [People]
- Heath Ledger's family is "so proud" the actor got a Golden Globe nomination for The Dark Knight. [People]
- There's a London couple being sentenced for supplying drugs to a "hit list" of celebs including — wait for it — Amy Winehouse. [The Star]
- "Of the 90 or so actors to grace the Saturday Night Live stage since its first show in 1975, only eight have been African-American." Boo. And ridiculous. [Gatecrasher]
- Here's everything you never wanted to know about how Samantha Ronson is suing the lawyer she hired to stop Perez Hilton from spreading rumors about her and how the lawyer is suing her right back and how blogs are writing about the whole thing. [LA Times]
- Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are joining the cast of Classic Stage Company's production of Uncle Vanya. Pretty daamn cute, being in a plaay together. [NY Times]
- Ugly Betty's Ashley Jensen is suing the host of Bravo's Flipping Out, Jeff Lewis over "aggressive threats and outrageous behavior." [TMZ]
- We've heard this one before but here it is again: Seal says Heidi Klum told him she was pregnant after their first date. "I laughed and said, 'Already? That's amazing!' She said, 'Not with you stupid.' There was a pause of about 10 seconds," Seal says, "and I said, 'It doesn't change the way I feel about you because the fact that you are here tells me that you think a lot about me.'" [Mirror]
- Enrique Inglesias groped a 17-year-old girl on stage in London while singing to her. Well, he put his hand on her heart. But that is kind of close to some other stuff. The young lady in question, Maria from Essex says: "I had such an amazing night. I'll never forget it. It felt like a dream. He's so hot." [Mirror]
- Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham is coming back to primetime! Look for her in an ABC comedy from writer Alex Herschlag (Will and Grace) about a self-help guru who teaches women how to live a stress-free life — but struggles to follow her own advice when her boyfriend dumps her. [Variety]
- Eminem and Dr. Dre are back in the studio, and Em says he and his mentor are "up to our old mischievous ways." Good news. [Reuters]
- Real estate drama between Nicolette Sheridan and former fiancé Michael Bolton: Dude is homeless! [Page Six]
- Did Gwyneth Paltrow have a boob job? [Page Six]
- Axl Rose is anthropophobic — afraid of people. Some people are probably quite Axlphobic. [Page Six]
- If you smell the pungent scent of marijuana, know this: Willie Nelson cannot be far away. [Page Six]
- Kim Raver's heading to Ethiopia for UNICEF. [Page Six]
- Whitney Port has finally discovered that L.A. guys are trolls and New York guys are "more confident and know what they want." [Page Six]
- Blind item! "Which rehabbed starlet convinced a group of college kids to bring her a big bag of powder? She hoarded all the drugs for herself before kicking the kids out of her hotel. But the crew had the last laugh - they stole her entire liquor stash as they left." [Gatecrasher]
- Rihanna and Kelly Osbourne are coaching Nicole Richie as she prepares to release her debut album? Does this mean corsets and "Papa Don't Preach"? [Daily News]
- ALL 13 streets on a new £400million estate are being named after Rolling Stones hits. [The Sun]
- "I've heard stories from my aunts and uncles and my dad, I had an attitude about Germans, a prejudice about them. I speak several languages and I'm interested in languages. I can read a German paper slowly and can almost figure it out, yet I don't speak German and I realize I don't want to speak German. I don't like the way it sounds and I don't like being in Germany. By playing a German and trying to be honest about it I sort of got past that prejudice and judgment... Germans are people too!" — Viggo Mortensen. [Daily Express]
- "Mental disease is the only thing you can be diagnosed with and get yelled at for having. Why is that? From the moment I was diagnosed there was a certain sense of euphoria and 'Thank God' we figured this out. I thought that I'd become such a curmudgeon." — The Sopranos' Joe Pantoliano, who was miserable despite the success and family he'd always wanted. (He was diagnosed with clinical depression.) [AP]
- "I loved her, no question, in the proper platonic sense but, yes, I loved her. We were filming one day and I kept her waiting on set because I was still in my caravan, playing cards. She stormed in and shouted: 'You are a real nut and I've met some nuts in my day.' And then she hit me. A couple of hours later, I went to see her and gave her a present to say I was sorry for keeping her waiting. She said: 'Don't worry, pig. I only hit the people I love.'" — Peter O'Toole on Katharine Hepburn. [Daily Mail]
- "Some people believe that if you date a person from another race you are somehow denying who you are. They believe that dating someone with a different skin color somehow makes you a self-hater, loathing that which makes you yourself. They believe that it's an insult to your parents, ancestors, heritage and community. I find this view much more telling about the people who say this than about those who do find a physical, spiritual, mental and emotional connection with someone who looks different than themselves. Choosing someone who I am physically attracted to and who also inspires, uplifts, educates and keeps me interested is my first priority- not their race." — Russell Simmons. [ONTD]
- "I've never played super-dark in a film. I think I'd be curious to do it. If a character comes along that I find really compelling and it works out that the director wants to go that direction with me, I'm totally willing to try. I've actually auditioned, but I think people have a hard time making the leap from — I don't want to use this as a cop-out, but my energy is not dark, my being is not dark. Oh, gosh — I can be very dark… I become very Eeyore." — Amy Adams. [Washington Post]
- "WHAT I don't like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day" - Phyllis Diller in Bruce Littlefield's book, Merry Christmas, America!. [Page Six]
- "I have excellent facilities for ablutions, should you ever tire of the sweating and such. I'd be happy to scrub your back - from a safe distance." "We could meet early evening and bolster your rightly damaged ego with orgasms." "Come and see me in the daytime. We could generate a satanic infant." — text messages to ladies from Russell Brand. [Gatecrasher]
Filed to:Dirt Bag
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Chris Braak
Also, are private messages just gone, or is that only happening to me? Have I been personally forbidden from communicating with people except in public?


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No balls either.
Usher earned some respect yesterday when his comments on the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation were released. Specifically addressing the pictures showing Breezy jet skiing and cavorting in Miami a few days ago, Usher criticised:
"I'm a little disappointed in this photo. After the other photo [of Rihanna's bruised face posted by TMZ]? C'mon, Chris. Have a little bit of remorse, man. The man's on jet skis? Like, just relaxing in Miami?"
There was NO remorse. There has been NO accountability. Chris Brown's life has not changed. And the fact that Usher called that out was really rather refreshing.
But not for long.
Usher has now issued an apology. An apology for what??? Did he beat down his girlfriend? Did he bust up her nose? Did he make her lips bleed?
But Chris Brown is the new Usher. The old Usher can't sell records. The old Usher spoke out of line and needs to make sure the right people are placated:
"The comments made during a recent recording session amongst friends were taken out of context and blown out of proportion. I apologize on behalf of myself and my friends if anyone was offended. The intentions were not to pass judgment and we meant no harm. I respect and wish the best for all parties involved."
I hate people.
File photo from Kevin Winter/Gettyimages.com